My name is Anna, a native Brazilian foreign
language educator, born in Rio de Janeiro. I possess a bachelor's degree in
Humanities, Philosophy and Science from the University of São Paulo - USP.

Currently living in Chicago, I work with individuals
and corporate training programs. I have more than 16 years ofexperience teachingBrazilian Portuguese in France and in the
United States. Before moving to Chicago, I lived and worked in Paris for
6 years, prior to that in the New York City area for 10 years. During this time I traveled to many other countries for business and pleasure. In addition to Portuguese, I speak English, Spanish and
French.

Due to the fact that I have spent several
years living, working and traveling abroad, I feel capable of helping my students overcome cultural differences they might encounter during their learning
experience, as well as while doing business with Brazil or simply traveling and
living in this emerging multicultural country.

I utilize a method called “Effective Total
Immersion”; this means the student is immersed directly and immediately into
the target language from the opening day of class. I start speaking Portuguese
slowly and clearly, and use easily understandable cognates. These closely and
oftentimes immediately recognizable related words may differ only slightly in
pronunciation or spelling from the student's native language.

My method concentrates in speaking only in
Portuguese, while I use hand movements or signals as well as visual images to convey
the language in a proper manner. Grammar, reading and writing are also part of
the method, without being tedious or repetitive. I use textbooks especially
formulated for teaching Brazilian Portuguese for foreigners. Students learn the
language without analyzing or trying to translate into their native language. I
believe the key of learning a new language relies mostly on verbal
communication.

I strongly encourage my students to work on
assignments at home, which we correct together during the following class. It
is also important to devote time to reading, writing, and personal research.
This outside the classroom work, is a crucial part of any language learning
process.

Whether you are a beginner or an advanced
speaker, I am highly trained to help build your confidence and keep you
motivated to achieve your goal!